Sunday, May 15, 2011

John 10:1-21

“If it sounds good, it is good.”
                                        - Duke Ellington

altera die videt Iohannes Iesum venientem ad se et ait ecce agnus Dei qui tollit peccatum mundi

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, "Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (NRSV)

                            -John the Baptist seeing Jesus in John 1:29

. . it is necessary for me to work the works of him who sent me while it is day . .

                          - Jesus in John 9:4a

 and Dei have nothing linguistically in common – one a Greek verb (“it is necessary”), the other a Latin noun (“of God”). But, hey, they sound alike. Here in the gospel they merge in the hearing: the things necessary for life ( ) are met by the signs of God (dei) in the ministry of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, aka Lamb of God. 

Jesus' talk about sheep and shepherds is about, among other things, sounds. Like sounds. Trusted sounds. Trusting the right voice. Any keeper of sheep with tell you sheep know what sounds right and not. They are wired to recognize the one voice that leads them to pasture and protection, or the others that make them scatter. The voice of the shepherd rules. He is necessary for life. They accept no substitutes - follow no other out of the gate to pasture in the wild world.

Jesus is teaching with metaphor of course. People don't know what to make of him. But they know sheep. Is he of God? Specifically, is he the one of God? The good shepherd with whom people can trust life? To be sure, in the 21st century in the former domains of Christendom, this is very much a contested claim.

One thing he is not. He is not selling himself. The metaphorical flock recognizes the voice and the promise it holds. Jesus is not one of those marketers who says “trust me on this” and then uses some suggestive technique to dupe people into buying into something that shields the predator, like the proverbial wolf in sheep's clothing. Or shepherd's clothing. Jesus' listeners would have to respond some way. If they cannot trust what they have seen and heard (the signs of the gospel of John), then there is nothing to believe. Maybe some did not understand the language. Or they were out to lunch when Jesus came through town. Or there were too many cultural divides. The stories of the Bible and of faith in general make it pretty clear that the necessity of God does not put everybody in the same passage of text or creed at the same time. Events unfold. Current enemies become future disciples. Foreigners become children of God. People respond at different times in different ways. God's world is not a one-sheepfold world (vs. 16)– the good shepherd may use a different voice in a different context and time and still be Jesus. But if those who puzzled over who Jesus was are denying the good they have experienced through him - for whatever reason willfully becoming blind or deaf– then they are like sheep who refuse to be led to pasture – who must starve to death in the pen. This is what Jesus most commonly encountered. It really came down to being honest about life's necessities and acknowledging the one who was with them – and with us the readers. His teaching calls for mindfulness and heart to recognize the moment– not yet something else for puzzled spiritual consumers to buy into. 

The precincts of Jerusalem and Judea are not the only places we can discern Jesus in the practices of animal husbandry. Jim Pulfer has commented at workingpreacher.org that in a Lesotho village:

. . Each cow is given a bell to hang around its neck. Every bell has a unique sound by which the whole village can identify it - and they do - a musical name as it were - To hear this community of cows coming down from the pastures in the evening is wondrous - speaking openly to the heart of community life.

In far off Lesotho, far removed from ancient Judea in time and place, He is the music in the names, where the needs of village life are met by an act of God. Like Duke Ellington famously said, “If it sounds good, it is good.”

© 2011 Andy Gay